"Life and a dismal last name are the only two things Beyah Grim's parents ever gave her. After carving her path all on her own, Beyah is well on her way to bigger and better things, thanks to no one but herself. With only two short months separating her from the future she's built and the past she desperately wants to leave behind, an unexpected death leaves Beyah with no place to go during the interim. Forced to reach out to her last resort, Beyah...

"Nobody cuts deeper than family... Noah Alderman, a doctor and a widower, has remarried a wonderful woman, Maggie, and for the first time in a long time he and his son are happy. But their lives are turned upside down when Maggie's daughter Anna moves in with them. Anna is a gorgeous seventeen-year-old who balks at living under their rules though Maggie, ecstatic to have her daughter back, ignores the red flags that hint at the trouble that is brewing....

"Ever since her father died in a terrible accident, Maddy Gaines has worried a lot. She calls the police so often that she's on a first-name basis with the Sheriff. When a new boy moves to town, Maddy is convinced that he's not who he says he is-he's a boy who went missing six months ago. Maddy, her dog, her best friend, and her stepdad team up to see what he's hiding"--

Four youngsters, ages nine to fifteen, narrate one side of the story of their newly blended family's adjustment, interwoven with grief and loss.

Mum announces to Jack and Samantha that they're going on a family holiday to the Gold Coast. Jack isn't sure he likes the changes that are happening. Nana is getting old and can't do the things she used to. Rob, his sort-of-stepfather, is bringing his son Leo, and Jack is sure Leo is going to ruin everything.

"Jack's life is pretty good -- he has great friends, everyone loves his funny jokes and he's an awesome inventor. But things are getting complicated. Nanna's older and wobblier, and why does his face turn red when he sees his best friend, Anna? And to top it off, Mum and Rob's wedding seems to be taking over the world. Something really scary has also happened to his mum and it's going to take all of Jack's courage to deal with it"--Page 4 of cover....

Fourteen-year-old Polly Rodgers keeps a diary of her 1873 journey from England to Minnesota as part of a colony of eighty people seeking religious freedom, and of their first year struggling to make a life there, led by her father, a Baptist minister.